Narrow neck glass containers, such as beverage containers, conventionally are fabricated in a press-and-blow or a blow-and-blow manufacturing operation. In a press-and-blow operation, a molten glass charge or gob is placed in a blank mold and a plunger is moved into the blank mold to form the molten glass gob against the inside surfaces of the blank mold. The glass preform or parison then is removed from the blank mold and placed in a blow mold, in which the parison body is stretched by blow gas (usually air) against the internal surfaces of the blow mold while the neck finish remains in the geometry formed in the blank mold. It is desirable to provide internal embossments on the body of the final glass container for decorative or other purposes. It has been proposed to provide external debossments or pockets on a press-and-blow plunger to form internal embossments in a glass parison, which become internal embossments in the final glass container body after blow molding. However, this technique is not feasible in a narrow neck press-and-blow manufacturing operation because the outer surface of the plunger is essentially parallel to the direction of plunger motion. It therefore is one general object of the present disclosure to provide a method of making a narrow neck glass container in a press-and-blow manufacturing process and having at least one internal embossment on the glass container body.
The present disclosure embodies a number of aspects that can be implemented separately from or in combination with each other.
A method of making a narrow neck glass container having a container neck finish and a container body with at least one internal embossment, in accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure, includes providing a blank mold having a mold body and a neck ring. The neck ring has an internal surface for forming the final container neck finish having an external closure attachment diameter (i.e., a T (thread) diameter of a threaded finish and an A diameter of a crown finish) of not more than 36 mm. The blank mold body has an internal surface with at least one debossment or pocket of predetermined geometry. A gob of molten glass is placed in the blank mold, and a plunger is moved through the neck ring into the mold body to form the molten glass against the internal surfaces of the neck ring and the mold body. A glass parison thereby is formed having the final container neck finish and a parison body with at least one external embossment corresponding to the at least one internal debossment on the mold body internal surface. The glass parison preferably is removed from the blank mold and placed into a blow mold having an internal surface. Blow gas is directed through the neck finish into the parison body to stretch the parison body against the blow mold internal surface and thereby push the at least one external embossment through the wall of the parison body and form a container body having at least one internal embossment corresponding to the external embossment on the parison.
In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, a narrow neck glass container includes a container body and a container neck finish. The container neck finish has a T diameter of not more than 36 mm, and the container body has at least one internal embossment of predetermined geometry. The at least one internal embossment preferably comprises a plurality of internal embossments in a geometric pattern. A glass parison in accordance with a further aspect of the present disclosure includes a parison body and a neck finish. The neck finish has an external closure attachment diameter of not more than 36 mm, and the parison body has at least one external embossment of predetermined geometry. The at least one external embossment preferably comprises a plurality of external embossments in a geometric pattern.